A. M. Paton

Modification of Plants Using Intracellular Associations of L-Form Bacteria

Almost any bacterium can be converted into the so-called L-form by removal of the cell wall (1) and can be maintained indefinitely on nutritive media, supplemented with osmotic stabilisers. L-form bacteria differ from their parent cell walled form, in their size, vacuolation and pleomorphic nature (Fig. 1). Here we describe the longterm association of L-form bacteria with plants and show that bacterial secondary metabolites are produced by the L-form in association with the plant.